The inn which served the village near Cardinals Folly was almost as old as the house. At one period it had been a hostelry of some importance, but the changing system of highways in the eighteenth century had left it denuded of the coaching traffic and doomed from then on to cater only for the modest wants of the small local population. It had been added to and altered many times; for one long period falling almost wholly into disrepair, since its revenue was insufficient for its upkeep, and so it had remained until a few years earlier upon the retirement of Mr Jeremiah Wilkes, the ex-valet of a wealthy peer who lived not far distant.
Only the fact that Mr Wilkes suffered from chronic sciatica, which rendered it impossible for him to travel any more with his old master, had made his retirement necessary. Through those long years of packing just the right garments that his lordship might need for Cowes, Scotland or the French Riviera, and exercising his incomparable facility for obtaining the most comfortable seats upon trains which were already full, he had always had it in the back of his mind that he would like to be the proprietor of a gentlemanly ‘house.’
When the question of his retirement had been discussed, and Jeremiah had named the ambition of his old age, his master had most generously suggested the purchase and restoration of the old inn, but voiced his doubts of Jeremiah’s ability to run it at a profit; stating that capital was very necessary to the success of any business, and adding in his innocence that he did not feel Jeremiah could have saved a sufficient sum despite the long period in his employment.
In this, of course, his lordship was entirely wrong. Jeremiah’s wage might have been a modest one but, while protecting his master from many generations of minor thieves, he had gathered in the time-honoured perquisites which were his due and, since he had stoutly resisted the efforts of his fellow servants to interest him in ‘the horses’, he owned investments in property which would have considerably amazed his master.
Mr Wilkes, therefore, had modestly stated that he thought he might manage providing that his lordship would be good enough to send him such friends, or their retainers, as could not be accommodated at the Court when shooting parties and such like were in progress. This having been arranged satisfactorily, Mr Wilkes underwent the metamorphosis from a gentleman’s gentleman to host of ‘The Pride of Peacocks.’
Very soon the old inn began to thrive again; quietly, of course, since it was no road-house for noisy motorists. But it became well known among a certain select few who enjoyed a peaceful weekend in lovely scenery, and Mr Wilkes’ admirable attention to these, together with his wife’s considerable knowledge of the culinary art, never caused them to question their Monday morning bill.
Jeremiah had further added to the attraction of the place by stocking a cellar with variety and taste from his lordship’s London wine merchant on terms extremely advantageous to himself, and moreover to the added well-being of the neighbourhood. The hideous and childish tyranny of licensing hours never affected him in the least for the simple reason that all his customers were personal friends, including, of course, the magistrates upon the local bench, and had some officious policeman from the town ever questioned the fact that gentlemen were to be found there quite frequently in the middle of the afternoon taking a little modest refreshment, they would have quailed under the astonished and supercilious glance of the good Mr Wilkes, together with the freezing statement that this was no monetary transaction, but the gentlemen concerned were doing him the honour to give him their opinion upon his latest purchase in the way of port.
In short, it will be gathered that this ancient hostelry could provide all the comfort which any reasonable person might demand, and was something a little out of the ordinary for a village inn. Rex, of course, knew the place well from his previous visits to Cardinals Folly and, a little out of breath from the pace at which he had come, hurried into the low comfortably furnished lounge, the old oak beams of which almost came down to his head.
Tanith was there alone. Immediately she saw him she jumped up from her chair and ran to meet him, gripping both his hands in hers with a strength surprising for her slender fingers.
She was pale and weary. Her green linen dress was stained and mired from her terrible journey on the previous night, although obviously she had done her best to tidy herself. Her eyes were shadowed from strain and lack of sleep, seeming unnaturally large, and she trembled slightly as she clutched at him.
‘Oh, thank God you’ve come!’ she cried.
‘But how did you know I was at Cardinals Folly?’ he asked her quickly.
‘My dear,’ she sank down in the chair again, drawing her hand wearily across her eyes. ‘I am terribly sorry about last night. I think I was mad when I stole your car and tried to get to the Sabbat. I crashed of course, but I expect you will have heard about that, and then I did the last five miles on foot.’
‘Good God! Do you mean to say you got there after all?’
She nodded and told him of that nightmare walk from Easterton to the Satanic Festival. As she came to the part in her story where, against her will, she had been drawn down into the valley, her eyes once more expressed the hideous terror which she had felt.
‘I could not help myself,’ she said. ‘I tried to resist with all my mind but my feet simply moved against my will. Then, for a moment, I thought that the heavens had opened and an angry God had suddenly decided to strike those blasphemous people dead. There was a noise like thunder and two giant eyes like those of some nightmare monster seemed to leap out of the darkness right at me. I screamed, I think, and jumped aside. I remember falling and springing up again. The power that had held my feet seemed to have been suddenly released and I fled up the hill in absolute panic. When I got to the top I tripped over something and then I must have fainted.’
Rex smiled. ‘That was us in the car,’ he said. ‘But how did you know where to find me?’
‘It was not very difficult,’ she told him. ‘When I came to, I was lying on the grass and there wasn’t a sound to show that there was a living soul within miles of me. I started off at a run without the faintest idea where I was going, my only thought being to get away from that terrible valley. Then when I was absolutely exhausted I fell again, and I must have been so done in that I slept for a little in a ditch.
‘When I woke up, it was morning and I found that I was quite near a main road. I limped along it not knowing what I should come to and then I saw houses and a straggling street and, after a little, I discovered that I had walked into Devizes.
‘I went into the centre of the town and was about to go into an hotel when I realised that I had no money; but I had a brooch, so I found a jeweller’s and sold it to them—or rather, they agreed to advance me twenty pounds, because I didn’t want to part with it and it must be worth at least a hundred. An awfully nice old man there agreed to keep it as security until I could send him the money on from London. Then I did go to the hotel, took a room and tried to think things over.
‘Such an extraordinary lot seemed to have happened since you took me off in your car from Claridges yesterday that at first I could not get things straight at all, but one thing stood out absolutely clearly. Whether it was you or the vision of my mother, I don’t know, but my whole outlook had changed completely. How I could ever have allowed myself to listen to Madame D’Urfé and do the things I’ve done I just can’t think. But I know now that I’ve been in the most awful danger, and that I must try and get free of Mocata somehow. Anyone would think me mad, and possibly I am, to come to you like this when I hardly know you, but the whole thing has been absolutely outside all ordinary experiences. I am terribly alone, Rex, and you are the only person in the world that I can turn to.’
She sank back in her chair almost exhausted with the effort of endeavouring to impress him with her feelings, but he leant forward and, taking one of her hands in his great leg-of-mutton fist, squeezed it gently.
‘There, there, my sweet.’ Speaking from his heart he used the endearment quite naturally and unconsciously. ‘You did the right thing every time. Don’t you worry any more. Nobody is going to hurt a hair of your head now you’ve got here safely. But how in the world did you do it?’
Her eyes opened again and she smiled faintly. ‘My only hope was to throw myself on your protection, so I had to find you somehow and that part wasn’t difficult. All systems of divination are merely so many methods of obscuring the outer vision, in order that the inner may become clear. Tea-leaves, crystals, melting wax, lees of wine, cards, water, entrails, birds, sieve-turning, sand and all the rest.
‘I wanted sleep terribly when I got to that hotel bedroom, but I knew that I mustn’t allow myself to, so I took some paper from the lounge, and borrowed a pencil. Then I drew myself into a trance with the paper before me and the pencil in my hand. When I looked at it again I had quite enough information scribbled down to enable me to follow you here.’
Rex accepted this amazing explanation quite calmly. Had he been told such a thing a few days before he would have considered it fantastic, but now it never even occurred to him that it was in any way extraordinary that a woman desiring to know his whereabouts should throw herself into a trance and employ automatic writing.
She glanced at the old grandfather clock which stood ticking away in a corner of the low-raftered room. Half an hour had sped by already and he was feeling guilty now at having left Simon. He would never be able to forgive himself if, in his absence, any harm befell his friend. Now that he knew Tanith was safe he must get back to Cardinals Folly, so he announced abruptly: ‘I’m mighty sorry, but I’ve got Simon to look after so I can’t stay here much longer.’
‘Oh, Rex,’ her eyes held his imploringly. ‘You must not unless you take me with you. If you leave me alone, Mocata will be certain to get me.’
For a moment Rex hesitated miserably, wrestling with the quandary that faced him. If Tanith was telling the truth, he couldn’t possibly leave her to be drawn back by that terrible power of evil. But was she? So far she had been Mocata’s puppet. How much truth was there in this pretended change of heart? Had Mocata planted her there in order to lure him deliberately away from Simon’s side?
It occurred to him that he might take her back with him to Cardinals Folly, for if she was speaking the truth she was in the same case as Simon. They could keep the two of them together and concentrate their forces against the black magician. But he dismissed the idea almost as soon as it entered his mind. To do so would be playing Mocata’s game with a vengeance. If Tanith were acting consciously or unconsciously under his influence, God alone knew what powers she might possess to aid her master once they accepted her as a friend in their midst. If he took her there it would be like introducing one of the enemy into a beleaguered fortress.
‘What are you afraid might happen if I leave you?’ he asked suddenly.
‘You can’t, you mustn’t,’ her eyes pleaded with him. ‘Not only for my own sake, but your friends’ as well. Mocata has a hundred means of knowing where Simon is and where I am too. He may arrive here at any moment. It’s no good pretending Rex. I know beyond any question that I cannot resist him and he’ll work through me, however much my will is set against it. He’s told me a dozen times that he has never met a woman who is such a successful medium for him as myself. So you can be certain that he is on his way here now.’
‘What d’you think he’ll do when he turns up?’
‘He will throw me into a trance and call Simon to him. Then if Simon fails to come Mocata may curse him through me.’
Rex shrugged. ‘Don’t worry. De Richleau’s a wily old bird. He’ll turn the curse aside some way.’
‘But you don’t seem to understand,’ she sobbed. ‘If a curse is sent out it must lodge somewhere, and if it fails to reach its objective because there is an equally strong influence working against it, the vibrations recoil and impinge upon the sender.’
‘Steady now.’ He took her hands and tried to soothe her. ‘If that is so I guess we couldn’t find a better way to tickle up Mocata.’
‘No–no!! He never does things himself—at least I have never known him to—just in case he fails, because then he would have to pay the penalty. Instead, he uses other people—hypnotises them and makes them throw out the thought or the wish. That is what he will do to me. If he succeeds, you will no longer be able to protect Simon, and if he fails, it is I who will pay the price. That is why you’ve just got to stay with me and prevent him using me as his instrument.’
‘Holy smoke! Then we’re in a proper jam!’ Rex’s brain was working swiftly. If she were telling the truth, she was in real danger. If not, at least Simon still had Richard and Marie Lou to take care of him until the Duke’s return.
All his chivalry and his love for her which seemed to have blossomed overnight welled up and told him that he must chance her honesty and remain there to protect her. ‘All right, I’ll stay,’ he said after a moment.
‘Oh, thank God!’ she sighed. ‘Thank God!’
‘But tell me,’ he went on, ‘just why is it you’re such a king-pin medium to this man? What about old Madame D’Urfé and the rest? Can’t he do his stuff through them?’
Tanith looked at him through tear-dimmed eyes and shook her head. ‘Not in the same way. You see there is rather an unusual link between us. My number is twenty and so is his.’
Rex frowned. ‘What exactly do you mean by that?’ he asked in a puzzled voice.
‘I mean our astrological number,’ she replied quietly. ‘Give me a piece of paper, and I will show you.’
Rex handed her a few sheets from a nearby table and a pencil from his waistcoat pocket. Then she quickly drew out a list of the numerical values to the letters of the alphabet:
‘There!’ she went on. ‘By substituting numbers for letters in anyone’s name and adding them up you get their occult number which indicates the planet that influences them most in all spiritual affairs. It must be the name by which they are most generally known, even if it is a pet name. Now look!’
‘You see how closely our vibrations are attuned. Two is the value of the Moon, to which both he and I are subject, and any names having a total numerical value which reduce by progressive additions to two, such as eleven or twenty-nine or thirty-eight or forty-seven, would give us some affinity, but that they actually add up to the same compound number shows that we are attuned to a very remarkable degree. That is why I have proved such an exceptionally good medium for him to work through.’
‘But you are utterly different from him,’ Rex protested.
‘Of course,’ she nodded gravely. ‘One’s birth date gives the material number, which is generally that of another planet and modifies the influence of the spiritual number considerably. As it happens mine is May 2nd—again a two you see, so I am an almost pure type. Moon people are intensely imaginative, artistic, romantic, gentle by nature and not very strong physically. They are rather over-sensitive and lacking in self-confidence, unsettled too, and liable to be continually changing their plans, but most of them, of course, have some balancing factor. Mocata gets all his imaginative and psychic qualities from the Moon, but his birthday is April 24th which adds up to six, and six being the number of Venus, he is very strongly influenced by that planet. Venus people are extremely magnetic. They attract others easily and are usually loved and worshipped by those under them, but very often they are obstinate and unyielding. It is that in his nature which balances the weakness of the Moon and makes him so determined in carrying out his plans.’
‘What do I come under?’ Rex asked with sudden curiosity. ‘My names are so short that I’m generally known by all three.’
Again Tanith took the paper and quickly worked out the equivalent of his name.
She looked at him sharply. ‘Yes. I am not surprised. Five is a fortunate and magic number which comes under Mercury. Such people are versatile and mercurial, quick in thought and decisions, impulsive in action and detest plodding work. They make friends easily with every type and have a wonderful elasticity of character which can recover at once from any setback. Even though I do not know you well. I am certain that all this is true of you. I expect you are a born speculator as well and every type of risk attracts you.’
‘That certainly is so,’ Rex grinned as she went on thoughtfully: ‘But I should have thought that there was a good bit of the Sun about you because you have such strong individuality and you are so definite in your views.’
‘I was born on the 19th of August if that gives you a line.’
She smiled. ‘Yes. 19 is 1 + 9 which equals 10, and 1 + 0 equals 1, the number of the Sun. So I was right, and it is that part of you which I think attracts me so much. Sun and Moon people always get on well together.’
‘I don’t know anything about that,’ Rex said softly. ‘But I’m dead sure I could never see too much of you.’
She lifted her eyes from his quickly, as though almost in fright, and to break the pause that followed he asked: ‘What number is Simon associated with?’
‘He was born under Saturn as we know only too well, and his occult number is certain to be the Saturnian eight,’ Tanith replied promptly, scribbling the name and numbers on the paper.
‘By Jove! that’s incredible,’ Rex murmured as he saw the name worked out quite simple to the number she had predicted.
‘He is a typical number eight person too,’ she went on. ‘They have deep, intense natures and are often lonely at heart because they are frequently misunderstood. Sometimes they play a most important part on life’s stage and nearly always a fatalistic one. They are almost fanatically loyal to persons they are fond of or causes they take up, and carry things through regardless of making enemies. It is not a fortunate number to be born under as a rule, and such people usually become great successes or great failures.’
Rex drew the paper towards him, and taking the pencil from her began to work out for himself the numerical symbols of De Richleau, Richard Eaton and Marie Lou.
‘This is amazing,’ Tanith exclaimed when he had finished. ‘The Duke not only comes under the eight like Simon, but their compound number, thirty–five–is the same as well. He should have immense influence with Simon through that affinity, just as Mocata has over me, and the nine in his name gives him the additional qualities of the born leader, independence, success, courage and determination. If anyone in the world can save your friend, that extraordinary combination of strength and sympathy will enable De Richleau to do so.’
‘But d’you see that the names Richleau and Ryn boil down to eight as well, linking us both with Simon. That’s strange, isn’t it?’
‘Not altogether. Any numerologist who knew of your devotion to each other would expect to find some such affinity in your numbers. You will see, too, that your other friend, Richard Eaton, is a four person, which accounts for his sympathy towards you. The eight is formed by two halves or circles and, four being the half of eight, persons with those numbers will always incline towards each other. Then his wife, like myself, is a two which is again linked to all four of you because it is divisible into eight.’
Rex nodded. ‘It’s the strangest mystery I’ve met up with in the whale of a while. There isn’t a single odd number in the whole series, but tell me, would this combination of eights be a good thing d’you reckon, or no?’
‘It is very, very potent,’ she said slowly. ‘888 is the number given to Our Lord by students of Occultism in his aspect as the Redeemer. Add them together and you get twenty-four. 2 + 4=6 which is the number of Venus, the representative of Love. That is the complete opposite of 666 which Revelations give as the number of the Beast. The three sixes add to eighteen, and 1 + 8 = 9, the symbol of Mars—De Richleau’s secondary quality which makes him a great leader and fighter, but in its pure state represents Destruction, Force and War.’
At the mention of War, Rex’s whole mind was jerked from the quiet, comfortable, old-fashioned inn parlour to a mental picture of De Richleau as he had stood only a few hours before with the light of dawn breaking over Stonehenge. He saw again the Duke’s grey face and unnaturally bright eyes as he spoke of the Talisman of Set; that terrible gateway out of Hell through which, if Mocata found it, those dread four horsemen would come riding, invisible but all-powerful, to poison the thoughts of peace-loving people and manipulate unscrupulous statesmen, influencing them to plunge Europe into fresh calamity.
Not only had they to fight Mocata for Simon’s safety and Tanith’s as well but, murder though it might be to people lacking in understanding, they had to kill him even if they were forced to sacrifice themselves.
With sudden clarity Rex saw that Tanith’s appeal for protection offered a golden opportunity to carry the war into the enemy’s camp. She was so certain that Mocata would appear to claim her, and De Richleau had stated positively that while daylight lasted the Satanist was no more powerful than any other thug.
‘Why,’ Rex thought, with a quick tightening of his great muscles, ‘should he not seize Mocata by force when he arrived; then send for the Duke to decide what they should do with him.’
Only one difficulty seemed to stand in the way. He could hardly attack a visitor and hold him prisoner in ‘The Pride of Peacocks.’ Mr Wilkes might object to that. But apparently Mocata could find Tanith with equal ease wherever she was, so she must be got out of the inn to some place where the business could be done without interference.
For a moment the thought of Cardinals Folly entered his mind again, but if he once took Tanith there, they could hardly turn her out later on, and she might become a highly dangerous focus in the coming night; besides, Mocata might not care to risk a visit to the house in daylight with the odds so heavily against him, and that would ruin the whole plan. Then he remembered the woods at the bottom of the garden behind the inn. If he took Tanith there and Mocata did turn up he would have a perfectly free hand in dealing with him. He glanced across at Tanith and suggested casually: ‘What about a little stroll?’
She shook her fair head, and lay back with half-closed eyes in the armchair. ‘I would love to, but I am so terribly tired. I had no proper sleep you know last night.’
He nodded. ‘We didn’t get much either. We were sitting around Stonehenge the best part of the time till dawn. After that we went into Amesbury where the Duke took a room. The people there must have thought us a strange party—one room for three people and beds being specially shifted into it at half-past seven in the morning, but he was insistent that we shouldn’t leave Simon for a second. So we had about four hours’ shut-eye on those three beds, all tied together by our wrists and ankles; but it’s a glorious afternoon and the woods round here are just lovely now it’s May.’
‘If you like.’ She rose sleepily. ‘I dare not go to sleep in any case. You mustn’t let me until tomorrow morning. After midnight it will be May 2nd, the mystic two again you see, and my birthday. So during the dark hours tonight I shall be passing into my fatal day. It may be good or evil, but in such circumstances it is almost certain to bring some crisis in my life, and I’m afraid, Rex, terribly afraid.’
He drew her arm protectively through his and led her out through the back door into the pleasant garden which boasted two large archery targets, a pastime that Jeremiah Wilkes had seen fit to institute for the amusement of the local gentry, deriving considerable profit therefrom when they bet each other numerous rounds of drinks upon their prowess with the six-foot bow.
A deep border of dark wallflowers sent out their heady scent at the farther end of the lawn, and beyond them the garden opened on to a natural wooded glade. A small stream marked the boundary of Mr Wilkes’ domain and when they reached it, Rex passed his arm round Tanith’s body, lifted her before she could protest, and with one spring of his long legs cleared the brook. She did not struggle from his grasp, but looked up at him curiously as she lay placid in his arms.
‘You must be very strong,’ she said. ‘Most men can lift a woman, but it can’t be easy to jump a five-foot brook with one.’
‘I’m strong enough,’ he smiled into her face, not attempting to put her down. ‘Strong enough for both of us. You needn’t worry.’ Then, still carrying her in his arms, he walked on into the depths of the wood until the fresh, green beech trees hid them from the windows of the inn.
‘You will get awfully tired,’ she said lazily.
‘Not me,’ he declared, shaking his head. ‘You may be tall, but you’re only a featherweight. I could carry you a mile if I wanted, and it wouldn’t hurt me any.’
‘You needn’t,’ she smiled up at him. ‘You can put me down now and we’ll sit under the trees. It’s lovely here. You were quite right, much nicer than the inn.’
He laid her down very gently on a sloping bank, but instead of rising, knelt above her with one arm still about her shoulders and looked down into her eyes. ‘You love me,’ he said suddenly. ‘Don’t you?’
‘Yes,’ she confessed with troubled shadows brooding in her golden eyes. ‘I do. But you mustn’t love me, Rex. You know what I told you yesterday. I’m going to die. I’m going to die soon—before the year is out.’
‘You’re not,’ he said, almost fiercely. ‘We’ll break this devil Mocata—De Richleau will, I’m certain.’
‘But, my dear, it’s nothing to do with him,’ she protested sadly. ‘It’s just Fate, and you haven’t known me long, so it’s not too late yet for you to keep a hold on yourself. You mustn’t love me because if you do, it will make you terribly unhappy when I die.’
‘You’re not going to die,’ he repeated, and then he laughed suddenly, boyishly, all his mercurial nature rising to dispel such gloomy thoughts. ‘If we both die tomorrow,’ he said suddenly, ‘we’ve still got today, and I love you, Tanith. That’s all there is to it.’
Her arms crept up about his neck and with sudden strength she kissed him on his mouth.
He grabbed her then, his lips seeking hers again and again, while he muttered little phrases of endearment, pouring out all the agony of anxiety that he had felt for her during the past night and the long run from Amesbury in the morning. She clung to him, laughing a little hysterically although she was not far from tears. This strange new happiness was overwhelming to her, flooding her whole being now with a desperate desire to live; to put behind her those nightmare dreams from which she had woken shuddering in the past months at visions of herself torn and bleeding, the victim of some horrible railway accident, or trapped upon the top storey of a blazing building with no alternative but to leap into the street below. For a moment it almost seemed to her that no real foundation existed for the dread which had haunted her since childhood. She was young, healthy and full of life. Why should she not enjoy to the full all the normal pleasures of life with this strong, merry-eyed man who had come so suddenly into her existence.
Again and again he assured her that all those thoughts of fatality being certain to overtake her were absurd. He told her that once she was out of Europe she would see things differently; the menace of the old superstition-ridden countries would drop away and that, in his lovely old home in the southern states, they would be able to laugh at Fate together.
Tanith did not really believe him. Her habit of mind had grown so strongly upon her; but she could not bring herself to argue against his happy auguries, or spoil those moments of glorious delight as they both confessed their passion for each other.
As he held her in his arms a marvellous languor began to steal through all her limbs. ‘Rex,’ she said softly. ‘I’m utterly done in with this on top of all the rest. I haven’t slept for nearly thirty-six hours. I ought not to now, but I’ll never be able to stay awake tonight unless I do. No harm can come to me while you’re with me, can it?’
‘No,’ he said huskily. ‘Neither man nor devil shall harm you while I’m around. You poor sweet, you must be just about at the end of your tether. Go to sleep now, just as you are.’
With a little sigh she turned over, nestling her fair head into the crook of his arm, where he sat with his back propped up against a tree-trunk. In another moment she was sound asleep.
The afternoon drew into evening. Rex’s arms and legs were cold and stiff, but he would not move for fear of waking her. A new anxiety began to trouble him. Mocata had not appeared, and what would they think had become of him at Cardinals Folly? Marie Lou knew he had gone to the inn, and they would probably have rung up by now. But, like a fool, he had neglected to leave any message for them.
The shadows fell, but still there was no sign of Mocata, and the imps of doubt once more began to fill Rex’s mind with horrible speculations as to the truth of Tanith’s story. Had she consciously or unconsciously lured him from Simon’s side on purpose? Simon would be safe enough with Richard and Marie Lou, and De Richleau had promised to rejoin them before dusk, but perhaps Mocata was plotting some evil to prevent the Duke’s return. If that were so—Rex shivered slightly at the thought—Richard knew nothing of those mysterious protective barriers with which it would be so necessary to surround Simon in the coming night, and he, who at least knew what had been done the night before, would be absent. By his desertion of his post poor Simon might fall an easy prey to the malefic influence of the Satanist.
He thought more than once of rousing Tanith, but she looked so peaceful, so happy, so lovely there, breathing gently and resting in his strong arms with all her limbs relaxed that he could not bring himself to do it. The shadows lengthened, night drew on, and at last darkness fell with Tanith still sleeping. The night of the ordeal had come and they were alone in the forest.
